1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. human resources

"COMMON PROPERTY" AS A CONCEPT
IN NATURAL RESOURCES POLICY*
S. V. CIRIACY-WANTRUP** and RICHARD C. BISHOP***
Institutions based on the concept "common property" have
played socially beneficial roles in natural resources management from
economic pre-history up to the present. These same institutions
promise help in solving pressing resources problems in both the developed and the developing countries. It is all the more important that
these institutions be the focus of an economic study because they
have been misunderstood by modern day economists: We refer to the
so-called "theory of common property resources" or what is often
termed the "tragedy of the commons."1
The extensive literature on the "theory of common property resources" accumulated over the past 20 years is summarized by the
maxim "everybody's property is nobody's property." That is, when a
given natural resource is physically and legally accessible to more
than one resource user, the result is said to be a free-for-all, with
users competing with one another for a greater share of the resource
to the detriment of themselves, the resource, and society as a whole.
At one time or another, this idea has been applied to an array of
resources including fisheries, grazing lands, forestry, groundwater,
oil, air, campgrounds, and even highways and the radio spectrum.
Students of these resources maintain that the "common property
condition" is largely to blame for a host of social ills including resource depletion, pollution, dissipation of economic surplus, poverty
among resource users, backwardness in technology, and misallocation
*Giannini Foundation Research Paper No. 00. Richard L. Barrows, Daniel W. Bromley,
Peter Dorner, Melvin Sabey, Stephen C. Smith, Hiroshi Yamauchi, and Douglas Yanggen
were helpful in a variety of ways during the preparation of this paper.
**Professor of Agricultural Economics, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley.
***Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Center for Resource
Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
1. The literature in economics is large. Recent examples, some of which provides extensive references to the earlier literature include:
Bell, Technology Externalities and Common PropertyResources: An Emperical Study of
the U.S. Northern Lobster Fishery, 80 J. Pol. Econ. 148-58 (1972); Haveman, Efficiency
and Equity in Natural Resource and Environmental Policy, 55 Am. J. Ag. Econ. 868-78
(1973); A. Freeman, R. Haveman, & A. Kneese, The Economics of Environmental Policy
77-9 (1973); Dales, Rights and Economics, in Perspectives in Property 151 (Wunderlich and
Gibson eds. 1972). Two contributions from outside of economics but expressing the same
views are: Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, 162 Sci 1243-48(1968); and Crowe, The
Tragedy of the Commons Revisited, 166 Sci. 1103-7 (1969).
NA TURA L RESOURCES JOURNAL
[Vol. 15
of labor and capital. Proposed solutions run in two directions. One is
to make the "common property" resource in question the private
property of individual resource users, who, via the "invisible hand,"
will manage the resource in society's best interest. Alternatively, the
problem is to be solved by governmental intervention, through taxes
or subsidies designed to bring private and social costs into balance
or-that failing-by direct governmental controls of inputs or outputs
or both.
Is this an adequate picture of mankind's experience with commonly owned resources? We submit that it is not. One source of
misunderstanding is that the term "common property" is used in a
way often at odds with the long-standing meaning of the concept,
sometimes to the point of being self-contradictory. To some extent,
then, this paper necessarily involves the meaning of concepts, or the
lack of such meaning. The paper goes beyond such a discussion of
the concept of common property to an examination of its policy
implications. These have been misinterpreted in economic literature
in such a way as to discredit a concept that is a valuable tool in the
economic analysis and soiution of difficult problems of natural
resources policy.
I
COMMON PROPERTY AS
A SOCIAL INSTITUTION
"Property," as applied to natural resources, is a "primary" social
institution2 both because of its own importance and because several
important "secondary" institutions, including taxation, credit and
tenancy, are derived from it.' "Property" refers to a bundle of rights
in the use and transfer (through selling, leasing, inheritance, etc.) of
natural resources. Different rights (strands of the bundle) may be
distributed in various combinations among natural and legal persons,
groups, and several publics, including the many units of government.
The term "common property" as employed here refers to a distribution of property rights in resources in which a number of
owners are co-equal in their rights to use the resource.4 This means
2. Institutions have been defined elsewhere as social decision systems "that provide
decision rules for adjusting and accomodating, over time, conflicting demands (using the
word in its more general sense) from different interest groups in a society." CiriacyWantrup, NaturalResources in Economic Growth, 51 Am. J. Ag. Econ. 1319 (1969).
3. See S. Ciriacy-Wantrup, Resource Conservation: Economics and Policies (3rd. ed.
1968).
4. It should be noted that the concept, as employed here, refers to the right to use the
resources, but not to transfer. Heirs of a common owner become co-owners themselves only
through their membership in the group (tribe, village, etc.).
October 1975]
COMMON PROPERTY
that their rights are not lost through non-use. It does not mean that
the co-equal owners are necessarily equal with respect to the quantities (or other specification) of the resource each uses over a period of
time. In other words, the concept as employed here refers to resources subject to the rights of common use and not to a specific use
right held by several owners. In the legal literature this distinction
appears as "common lands" on one side and "tenancy in common"
on the other.5
This meaning of the concept "common property" is well-established in formal institutions such as the Anglo-Saxon common law,
the German land law, the Roman law, and their successors. It is also
well-established in informal institutional arrangements based on
custom, tradition, kinship and social mores.
Sometimes both the institution and the resources subject to the
institution are called the "commons." It is helpful, however, to
differentiate between the concept, the institution, which in many
variations makes the concept operational in reality, and the particular resource that is subject to the institution. In any event economists
are not free to use the concept "common property resources" or
"commons" under conditions where no institutional arrangements
exist. Common property is not "everybody's property." The concept
implies that potential resource users who are not members of a group
of co-equal owners are excluded. The eoncept "property" has no
meaning without this feature of exclusion of all who are not either
owners themselves or have some arrangement with owners to use the
resource in question. For example, to describe unowned resources
(res nullius) as common property (res communes), as many economists have done for years in the case of high seas fisheries, is a
self-contradiction. The problems of managing fisheries in territorial
waters and those on the high seas have similarities-they are fugitive
resources-but they are very different in actual and potential institutional regulation. 6
On a broader scale, to lump problems associated with such greatly
different resources as air-a ubiquitous resource-and fisheries-a
fugitive resource-under the vaguely conceived concept of "common
property resources" is to slur fundamental institutional relationships,
an understanding of which is necessary if one wishes to study the
social performance of an institution both in historical perspective
5. Jurgensmeyer & Wadley, The Common Lands Concept: A "Commons" Solution to a
Common Environmental Problem, 14 Nat. Res. J. 368-81 (1974).
6. For further discussion, see Ciriacy-Wantrup, The Economics of Environmental Policy,
47 Land Econ. 36-45 (Feb. 1971).
NA TURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL
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and in the context of today's problems of resource policy. Such a
study requires a conceptual framework.
II
SOCIAL PERFORMANCE OF COMMON PROPERTY
INSTITUTIONS: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Institutions may be conceptualized as decision systems on the
second level of a three level hierarchy of decision systems. 7 On the
first or lowest level, decisionmaking relates to the determination of
inputs, outputs, and the host of similar decisions made by the operating sectors of the economy, individuals, firms, industries, and public
operating agencies such as water projects and irrigation districts. This
level of decision systems may be called the "operating level." The
decision systems on the next higher level comprise the institutional
regulation of decision-making on the first level. One may call this
level of decision systems the "institutional level." On the third level
changes in institutions on the second level are the subject of decisionmaking. This level of decision systems may be called the "policy
level."
Decision systems on each level can be analyzed with respect to
structure, functioning, and performance. This paper is concerned
with the decision systems on the second level. The purpose of
decision-making on this level is not to determine directly inputs,
outputs, etc., on the operating level of the economy nor to attain a
path of welfare optima over time on the operating level. On the
contrary, the welfare optima as defined in modem economics-even
assuming that they are valid and relevant on the first level-can be
shown to lack such validity and relevancy when applied to the
institutional level. A discussion of the reasoning behind this conclusion is found elsewhere 8 and would take us too far afield here.
Suffice it to say that the measure of performance of decision systems
on the second level is not to achieve welfare optima, but rather to
maintain and to increase welfare by continuously influencing
decision-making on the lower level under constantly changing conditions that for any point in time cannot be projected, or can be
projected only vaguely, and that are always uncertain with respect to
actual occurrence.
What then has been the structure of common property institutions
7. For more detailed discussions see Ciriacy-Wantrup, Water Policy and Economic
Optimizing: Some Conceptual Problems in Water Research, 57 Am. Econ. Rev. 179-89
(1967) and Ciriacy-Wantrup, supra note 6, at 40-45; and Ciriacy-Wantrup, supra note 3, at
ch. 10 and elsewhere.
8. See material cited in note 7 supra for more detailed treatment.
October 19751
COMMON PROPERTY
over the years? How have they functioned? And, most importantly,
how well have they performed?
THE COMMONS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
Let us begin to answer these questions by looking back into
economic history. Mankind's experience with the common ownership of natural resources started with communal hunting and gathering societies. Did welfare decrease under common property
institutions? In particular, was there a tendency for these societies to
overuse their resources because of common ownership?
Hunting and gathering societies are interesting in themselves and
also allow us to make inferences about our own economic history.
Some anthropologists have shown renewed interest in these rapidly
disappearing societies, and more adequate documentation is now
available. 9 Obviously, within these societies the structure and function of resource-regulating institutions are based on customs, taboos,
and kinship rather than on formal relations such as legislation and
court decisions which characterize more "advanced societies." Still,
these informal institutions confer the same rights, i.e., equality of the
right to use for members of the group and exclusion of others, as the
more modem formal institutions.
In communal hunting and gathering societies, without markets on
which to sell surpluses, emphasis on sharing among members of the
group tended to discourage accumulation.1 0 The community coped
with increasing population density through customs and taboos
regulating marriage, lactation, and other forms of behavior. The most
important process, however, was "fission." As group size grows
groups tend to split and become established in new areas. This
process has been noted in enough situations to be regarded as a
general characteristic of communal hunting and gathering societies.1
Some African communal hunting tribes have practices which are
more familiar to us. The Acholi of Uganda, for example, enforced
closed seasons." 2 In cases where depletion of resources would be
9. Man the Hunter (R. Lee & I. DeVote eds. 1968).
10. Lee, What Hunters Do for a Living, or, How to make Out on Scarce Resource in Id.
at 30-43. See also M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics 46-47 and elsewhere (1972).
11. Supra note 9, at 9. The Mbuti Pygmies are an example and are described by C.
Turnbull in Man the Hunter, supra note 9, at 132-37 and also in a book by Turnbull,
Wayward Servants (1965). Other groups displaying this characteristic are discussed in Man
the Hunter, supra note 9, by Lee & by R. Woodburn, Stability and Flexibility in Hazda
Residential Groupings at 103-10.
12. Parker & Graham, The Ecological and Economic Basis for Game Ranching in Africa,
The Scientific Management of Animal and Plant Communities for Conservation 394 (1971).
NA TURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL
[Vol. 15
tantamount to disaster, the headmen of South Africa's bushmen
groups functioned as inventory keepers.' 3
Such institutions were effective in managing resources on a sustained-yield basis." Population was not controlled by Malthusian
scarcity. In fact, diets tended to be more than adequate. Some
authors describe such societies as generally affluent, as that term is
culturally defined for them.' s Common ownership of resources must
be regarded as the key factor in maintenance of this condition. Rules
of sharing reduced the incentives to deplete resources for individual
gain. The process of fission was facilitated because no individual
property rights had to be settled. Many of these societies were either
sedentary or moved only within definite geographic areas in accordance with seasonal changes affecting the availability of forage for
game and for gathering by humans. Such societies were capable of
existing over long periods in equilibrium with their resources unless
disturbed by unusual environmental changes or interference from the
outside.
The most important outside interference with these societies has
been contact with the market economy and other aspects of western
culture. In many cases resources were depleted as a result of this
contact. Two points need to be made. First, the group depleting the
resource was not always the communal hunters and gatherers, as
exemplified by the fate of the American bison. Second, selfsufficient hunting and gathering societies have inherent weaknesses
in adapting to contact with the market. These weaknesses are not
related to common ownership. The scenario usually involves the
hunters and gatherers overusing their resources in order to acquire
market products.' 6 Equally significant in many cases was the introduction of taxes to be paid in cash. Cash could only be acquired with
overuse of resources in order to obtain a marketable surplus.' ' This
raises an important question. Can common ownership of resources
perform well in a market economy? To answer that question we will
turn next to a discussion of the European commons, some of which
have continued to the present day.
From pre-history until the present some grazing lands and forests
in Europe have been managed as common property resources. Struc13. D. Fraser, Village Planning in the Primitive World (1968).
14. We should note, however, that some authors suspect that hunting and gathering
societies were instrumental in the extinction of some species during distant pre-history. See
Long & Martin, Death of the Ground Sloth, 186 Sci. 638-60 (1974).
15. Parker and Graham, supra note 12 and Sahlins, supra note 10.
16. A. Firth, Primitive Polynesian Economy (1966).
17. See, e.g., Behannan, Impact of Money on African Economy, 19 J. Econ. Hist.
499-500 (1959).
October 19751
COMMON PROPERTY
ture, functioning, and performance of these institutions have been
studied over a much longer period than the institutions of hunting
and gathering societies.' 8
Grazing on the commons under European conditions was seasonal,
and the beginning and end of the grazing season were set uniformly
for all co-equal owners in accordance with forage availability. Grazing was permitted only during the daylight hours. Strong controls on
grazing were maintained by the simple requirement that each individual livestock owner have sufficient feed base at his command to
support his stock in the nongrazing season and during the night. In
cases where overgrazing was a threat even with the feed base restrictions, e.g., with an increase in aggregate feed base due to the intensification of agriculture, common users were assigned quotas of
animals they could graze on the commons during the grazing seasons,
e.g., 1 horse, 2 cows, 10 hogs, 6 geese, a process which the English
called "stinting."' 9
The historical reduction of the commons in Great Britain is welldocumented in the voluminous literature on enclosure. 20 Overgrazing was not a cause. One important factor was the increased profitability for the feudal lord of grazing sheep for commercial wool
production. Much land which had previously been farmed by
peasants to produce food and other products for home consumption,
as well as the former grazing commons, went into direct management
by the manorial estate. Another factor was breaking up of the open
field system in response to agricultural progress. Different parts of
the peasant economy are closely related. After harvest, livestock
could be grazed on the fallow land and stubble in the open fields. 2'
When agriculture intensified, through row crops and multiple cropping displacing the fallow and stubble fields, the open fields were
enclosed, largely at the insistence of the feudal lord, and the peasants
were displaced (often without compensation). 2
England and Wales still contain 1.5 million acres of commons, the
bulk of which is grazed much as it has been for centuries. In addition
18. B. Slicher Van Bath, the Agrarian History of Western Europe, 500-1850 (1963).
19. W. Tate, The English Village Community and the Enclosure Movements, 162-3
(1967) and W. Hoskins & L. Stamp, The Common Lands of England Wales, 36-7, 50, and
elsewhere, (1963). An analogous system in the United States exists for stocking of the
public range under Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management grazing permits. Here
also grazing permits are allocated in accordance with the home feed base of the permittee
and the availability of forage.
20. A recent collection of works which include references to the previous literature is
Studies of Field Systems in the British Isles (A. Baker & R. Butlin, eds. 1973).
21. N. Neilson, Medieval Agrarian Economy (1936).
22. For more detail on the political economy of enclosure in England see Tate, supra
note 19.
NA TURAL RESOURCES JOUR NA L
[Vol. 15
these lands are playing a new role which becomes increasingly
important with each passing year as a refuge for residents of
crowded, polluted cities.2 3
Experience with the common forest lands on the European continent has been similar in many ways to that with grazing lands in
Great Britain.' 4 As forest lands became increasingly profitable as
sources of timber for sale vis-a-vis their traditional role as sources of
livestock forage, firewood for home consumption, and building
material for the peasant village, the feudal lords changed from administrators and protectors to profit-seeking entrepreneurs. The feudal
lord's rights in the common forests had been confined to hunting
rights, which were vested solely in him, and his grazing and other
rights, which he held as a co-equal with his villagers. When timber use
became profitable, grazing and wood gathering became an impediment to timber production. The feudal lord was motivated to reduce
and eliminate the grazing and other rights on the commons. I
In addition the same factors mentioned above in connection with
the enclosures in Great Britain operated. Here also the result was a
weakening of the village system and dispossession of the peasantry.
The peasant was transformed from a co-equal owner on the commons with secure tenure to a landless worker on the feudal estate.
This is the true "tragedy of the commons."
The feudal system never developed in some regions of the continent, such as portions of western Germany and Switzerland. With
the increasing profitability of timber production some of the commons in these regions were divided among the villagers and became
the woodlots of individual peasants. Frequently, however, the
commons remained intact and formed the basis for modern municipal forests. The commons which remained intact became some of the
best examples of progressive forest management. On the other hand,
the commons that were divided into private woodlots were generally
too small for efficient forestry and degenerated until government
intervention through regulation, assistance, and education reversed
the trend. Results were exactly the opposite of what the "theory of
common property resources" would lead one to expect. The substi23. See Hoskins and Stamp, supra note 19, at 3 and elsewhere.
24. We do not consider the French case explicitly here but the interested reader may
consult S. Herbert, The Fall of Feudalism in France 47-50 and elsewhere (2d ed. 1969).
25. One writer described developments in France as follows: "As the commercial and
manufacturing activity increased, there was a concomitant rise in the market value of forest
products and the struggle was on. The increased economic value of forest holdings led the
seigneurs and the king to become covetous of the community rights and to devise various
ways and means for usurping them." F. Sargent, Land Tenure in the Agriculture of France,
(1952 unpublished Ph.D. thesis in library of University of Wisconsin, Madison).
October 19751
COMMON PROPERTY
tution of private ownership for common ownership is not in itself a
socially desirable change.
Finally, we may mention the continued success of grazing commons in the highly productive Alpine meadows-for example, in
Switzerland, Austria, and southern Bavaria. These are above the
timberline and were, therefore, not affected by changes in the profitability of forestry under the expansion of the market economy. Here
common property institutions have not changed significantly since
the Middle Ages. Seasonal grazing and the necessary home feed base
are still key features. The only difference from the feudal grazing
system described above is that the movement to and from the
commons takes place only once a year because travel is longer and
more difficult.
The continued operation of commons both in England and on the
continent answers the question raised earlier about the viability of
common property in the market system. Common property, with the
institutional regulation it implies, is capable of satisfactory performance in the management of natural resources, such as grazing
and forest land, in a market economy.
IV
THE COMMON PROPERTY CONCEPT IN THE SOLUTION OF
PROBLEMS OF NATURAL RESOURCE POLICY
If the conclusions of the preceding historical sketch of the social
performance of common property institutions are correct, one may
ask whether such institutions might be helpful in the solution of
present problems of natural resources policy. We believe that the
answer is in the affirmative. In fact, it can be shown that the
common property concept is already being employed to help solve
important resource policy problems in the twentieth century.
Groundwater and the fisheries may serve as illustrations.
Riparian institutions regulated the use of water from surface
streams in England and on the continent long before formal riparian
law was developed in Anglo-Saxon common law and German land
law. The notion that the users of a common surface source were
co-equal in right was anchored in customs and traditions long before
a codified and legally enforceable riparian law existed. One of the
factors favorable to this development was the long experience with
the commons in grazing and forest resources.
While the solution of problems of surface water use through
riparian institutions is old, the problems created by groundwater use
are recent. To be sure, use of groundwater is also old, as, for ex-
NA TURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL
[Vol. 15
ample, in most countries of the Middle East. But pumping with the
Persian wheel did not create problems because of the shallow depth
and the low capacity of this system. The situation changed radically
with the advent of modern pumping technology based on the deep
well pump and electric and internal combustion power. Resource
depletion, increasing costs of pumping, and overinvestment in wells
were the result.
These problems were first solved in California by applying what is
known as the Correlative Rights Doctrine, implemented through
adjudication. As shown elsewhere, the Correlative Rights Doctrine
must be regarded as a direct descendant of riparian law, which as we
have seen is based on the common property concept.2 6
All pumpers of a given groundwater basin are regarded as co-equal
in right but adjudicated within the limits of the safe yield of the
basin in proportion to their historical use. In the process of adjudication, small, essentially domestic uses are usually not considered, and
new uses of this kind are permitted. There is no "limitation of entry"
for the small user.
Procedures similar to adjudication based on the common property
concept and resulting in quantitatively defined "quotas" of the resource also exist for fisheries. The fisheries situation is of interest not
only in its own right but also because the "theory of common property resources" traces its origins to the literature on fisheries
economics. 2 7 Overfishing has occurred with increasing frequency
over the last century. The bulk of the literature blames this problem
on the common property condition. In reality, common property
institutions are much in evidence in the evolution of institutions to
remedy overfishing.
The fishing season, for example, has been a widely applied tool of
fishery regulation. Ideally, the season is open long enough to allow
the fishermen to take the maximum sustainable yield from a given
fish stock and then closed until 4nother cropping becomes desirable.
The parallels between fishing seasons and grazing seasons on the
European commons are easily seen.
An important part of the evolution of the European commons was
the determination of boundaries of the grazing land of each village
and the determination of who had and who did not have co-equal
rights to graze. Extension of exclusive national fishing zones (and in
some cases territorial waters) to as much as 200 miles from the coast
26. Ciriacy-Wantrup, Some Economic Issues in Water Rights, 37 J. Farm Econ. 875-85
(Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics Paper 148, 1955).
27. Gordon, The Economic Theory of a Common Property Resource: The Fishery, 62 J.
Pol. Econ. 124-42 (1954).
October 1975)
COMMON PROPERTY
is analogous. While broad exclusive fishing zones raise many important issues, they do constitute one alternative institutional basis for
better fisheries management.
Another interesting parallel between the historical commons and
recent developments in fishery regulation is found in the establishment of national quotas. Such a system has been in effect for many
years under the Convention for the Protection and Extension of the
Sockeye Salmon of the Fraser River System, where the catch, which
is predetermined on the basis of estimated maximum sustainable
yield, is divided equally between fishermen of the United States and
Canada. More recently a system of national quotas for certain species
has been implemented by the International Commission for Northwest Atlantic Fisheries. Both of these management measures run
parallel to the long-standing practice of stinting grazing commons.2 8
As the prices of fish products have increased and the technology
of capturing fish has improved, problems have developed with trying
to regulate the fisheries through fishing seasons alone. In the extreme, the entire maximum sustainable yield may be taken in a few
weeks, leaving men and gear idle for at least part of the rest of the
year. This may also place great strain on processing facilities. The
fishermen apply political pressure on regulatory agencies to extend
the season and to allow the taking of protected species outside the
regular season as "incidental catch," while exploijing other species.
As a result of these pressures, the resource may become depleted.
The common property approach suggests a potential remedy: to
assign catch quotas to individual fishers in such a way as to make the
aggregate of the quotas equal to the desired total catch, which, in the
long run, would normally equal maximum sustainable yield. Just as
in the groundwater case, small operators could be excluded from the
quota system in fisheries where they take a sufficiently small share of
the total catch. It might even be desirable to make the quotas salable.
The details of implementation would vary from case to case. Just to
define who is a "fisherman" and hence entitled to a quota would
require careful study of each individual situation.
There are some similarities between such a quota system and limitation of entry as it is discussed in the more theoretical literature in
fisheries economics. In practice, however, limitation of entry programs are emphasizing restrictions on inputs. In British Columbia, for
example, the restrictions apply to the tonnage of vessels. This reflects
28. The economics of commercial fishing, including the institutional aspects, is discussed
in more detail in R. Bishop, U. S. Policy in Ocean Fisheries: A Study in the Political
Economy of Resources Management 1971 (University Microfilms No. 12-21, 623) (unpublished Ph.D. thesis in the library of University of California, Berkeley).
NA TURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL
[Vol. 15
the emphasis which most economists have placed on the misallocation of capital and labor that they believe exists between fishing and
the rest of the economy. Thus, the goal of limitation of entry is to
get capital and labor out of fishing and into other industries until an
efficient balance is reached. Under the quota system suggested above,
the emphasis is on outputs, not inputs, although some reduction in
inputs might well occur. This reflects the conclusion that in a grossly
imperfect economy like that of the United States the problem of
misallocation between the fishing industry and the rest of the
economy is insignificant, especially if fishing resources are as
immobile as available data indicate that they are. 2 9 A quota system
would place the emphasis exactly where it needs to be: on protection
of the resources and, if desired, on security of tenure for fishermen,
especially those with low incomes and few employment alternatives.
There is much yet to be done before the world's commercial
fisheries are adequately managed. These examples, however, do show
that the common property approach is already fulfilling an important role. Following those who believe that the high seas fisheries
should be treated as the common heritage of all mankind, one might
well wonder if the ultimate solution is to treat these resources as a
giant commons managed as a trust by some international agency such
as the United Nations.
In summary, overgrazing, overfishing, permanent depletion of
groundwater, air pollution, and the like are serious present-day problems which deserve the attention of economists. But the "theory of
common property resources," as interpreted in the economic literature, is an inadequate conceptual tool for the solution of such problems. The problems discussed in this literature involve resources
which are either "ubiquitous" or "fugitive." Ubiquitous resources are
resources which, at least up to some stage of economic development,
are not scarce. Nobody is excluded from their use. Examples are air,
solar radiation, precipitation, and wind. Institutions regulating their
use and allocation are not needed before that stage of economic
development is reached. In the case of air that stage has been
reached, and institutions regulating use are developing. Fugitive resources are resources which are mobile and must be captured
(reoIuced to possession) before they can be allocated to groups and
individuals. Such capture and allocation always pose the problem of
exclusion and, thus, institutional regulation tends to develop early.
Common property institutions, as interpreted here, are the most
important means of regulation.
29. See Bishop, Limitation of Entry in the United States FishingIndustry: An Economic
Appraisal of a ProposedPolicy, 49 Land Econ. 381-0 (1973).
October 19751
COMMON PROPERTY
V
COMMON PROPERTY, PUBLIC TRUST, AND PUBLIC PROPERTY
The suggestion of the preceding section, that the concept of common property facilitates rather than hinders the solution of present
problems of resource policy associated with the fugitive nature of
resources (as illustrated by groundwater and fisheries), may now be
broadened. We refer to the application of what is known as the
"public trust doctrine" to a wide spectrum of resource policy problems.
While we fully appreciate the important role of the judiciary in
developing and applying the public trust doctrine in the United
States,3 0 there is little doubt that the basic doctrine as embodied in
Roman and Anglo-Saxon law is derived from the common property
concept as interpreted in this essay. Some legal scholars even maintain that the public trust doctrine "is really the common lands concept, which has and continues to express communal interest and
right to land resources." 3 1
Public trusteeship in the United States is already extensive. With
some exceptions Indian land is held in trust by the federal government in accordance with the communal traditions of Indian tribes,
although the Bureau of Indian Affairs has often acted as if it were
public land.3 2 Water resources, shorelines, parklands, fish and
game, and other natural resources are held in trust by many
states.3
For purposes of natural resources policy such public trust
resources must be differentiated from public property resources.
First, legal restrictions on disposition of trust resources and on
changes in their use are more stringent than on public property
resources not subject to the trust doctrine. Second, resources under
the public trust doctrine are subject to government regulation without the legal obstacle of "taking for a public purpose" and therefore
without involving the issue of compensation. The latter point is frequently not appreciated and may be illustrated by a recent case.
The navigable waters of Wisconsin are held in trust by the state. 4
This principle involved a court test of the Wisconsin Shoreline Pro30. Sax, The Public Trust Doctrine In Natural Resource Law: Effective JudicialIntervention, 63 Mich. L. Rev., 471-565, (1970).
31. Jurgensmeyer and Wadley, supra note 5, at 379.
32. Dorner, Needed: A New Policy for The American Indians 37 Land Econ. 162-73,
(1961); see also Jurgensmeyer and Wadley, supra note 5, at 371-74.
33. See Sax, supra note 30.
34. H. Ellis, et. aL, Water-Use Law and Administration in Wisconsin 140 and elsewhere
(1970).
NA TURA L RESOURCES JOURNAL
[Vol. 15
tection Act. 3 s Passed in 1966, this act requires local governments to
develop shoreline zoning. The case in question was Just v. Marinette
County.3 6 The plaintiff was prevented from filling some wetlands by
Marinette County under its shoreland zoning ordinance and asked for
compensation, claiming that his private property had been taken for
a public purpose. The court ruled to the contrary. It stated that the
ordinance was a legitimate use of the police power. One of the key
points in the case has been stated by Bosselman, Callies, and Banta as
follows:
The Court noted that the lakes and rivers were originally clean
and said that the State of Wisconsin has an obligation in the nature
of a public trust to "eradicate the present pollution and to prevent
further pollution." It found that the regulation sought to prevent
harm to "the natural status quo of the environment," and was not
designed to produce a public benefit for which compensation would
be required. 7
From the standpoint of natural resources policy the public trust
approach offers important advantages over the public property
approach. Frequently public property resources are disposed of or
their use is changed as a result of the influence of rather narrow
interests on governmental bureaucracies. The Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Land Management,
and the highway departments of the states are examples. Application
of the public trust doctrine would force these bureaucracies to take
broader public interests-i.e., those of all common owners-into
account.
Even more important, the public trust doctrine can be applied to
many problems of "quality" in resource use for the solution of
which the public property approach would be ineffective or too
costly. The problems of water and air quality are well-studied examples.3 8 Be3ond these some even broader public interests in the environment can be protected through application of the public trust
doctrine. Protection of endangered wildlife species and of the scenic
beauty of a landscape may be mentioned in this connection. 3 9 Such
35. Wisc. Stat. Ann. Section 144.26, Section 59.971.
36. 56 Wis.2d 7, 201 N.W.2d 761 (1972).
37. F. Bosselman, D. Callies, & J. Banta, The Takings Issue, 218-19 (1973).
38. See Ciriacy-Wantrup, Water Quality: A Problemfor the Economist, 43 J. Farm Econ.
1133-44 (1961).
39. Ciriacy-Wantrup & Phillips, Conservation of the California Tule Elk: A Socioeconomic Study of a Survival Problem, 3 Biological Conservation 23-32 (Oct. 1970); Bishop,
Conceptual Economic Issues in Conserving the California Condor, 1972 W. Agricultural
Econ. Ass'n. Proc. 119-22.
October 19751
COMMON PROPERTY
727
application is still in the first tentative stages. But some optimism for
the future is warranted in view of the durability of the common
property concept and the viability and social performance of the
institutions that make it functional.